(2021-06-29) Ball Virtual Platforms And The Metaverse

Matthew Ball: Virtual Platforms and the Metaverse. Here, Virtual Platforms are defined as “The development and operation of immersive digital and often three-dimensional simulations, environments, and worlds wherein users and businesses can explore, create, socialize, and participate in a wide variety of experiences

Today, the most popular virtual platforms are Roblox and Minecraft, and, to a lesser extent, Grand Theft Auto Online and Fortnite Creative Mode

It’s no coincidence that all of the leading virtual platforms today originated in gaming.

because these experiences were designed to be fun, not Metaverses, they’ve also attracted and retained a larger number of users and greater user spending. More explicit efforts to build a Metaverse platform have either failed or hit comparatively low ceilings.

To this end, it’s important to emphasize that virtual platforms are a subset of virtual worlds, not synonymous with them

According to Bill Gates (as told by Chamath Palihapitiya), a “platform is when the economic value of everybody that uses it, exceeds the value of the company that creates it.” Tim Sweeney argues “something is a platform when the majority of content people spend time with is created by others.”

A virtual Metaverse platform must have the technical ability for (relatively-unbound) creation (engine + studio + tools), services to support it (prefabs and asset marketplaces, voice chat, player accounts, payment services), and operate a multifaceted economy (i.e. consumer spending that’s shared with on-platform creators/developers, as well as creator/developer-to-creator/developer revenues). In success, these platforms generate a virtuous circle. (virtual economy)

Crucially, these requirements are not limited to games

Nvidia’s Omniverse is another great example. The service helps businesses bring together various digital assets, irrespective of their formats or engine, into a single virtual environment. This is an interchange solution (Section #5), not a platform in a strict sense, as Omniverse is really just enabling businesses to work with more file formats, and especially to collaborate with third parties using different tech stacks. But it’s not hard to see where this might end up.

Hong Kong International Airport was famously designed in Unity, a leading game engine.

As the world shifts to mirrorworlds and simulation technology, it becomes possible to interconnect previously independent simulations. Imagine interconnecting the Hong Kong International Airport to the local highway to scenario-test the flow of traffic.

What’s key to Omniverse is that it can do this irrespective of the file formats and engine/simulation technologies being used. In other words, everything doesn’t have to be on Unity, or Unreal, or AutoCAD.

There are also a number of virtual platforms that aspire to displace the likes of Minecraft and Roblox through the use of blockchain. These include Decentraland, The Sandbox, Cryptovoxels, Somnium Space and Upland, and dozens more are in development. Subsequent sections will address more of the technical benefits of blockchain-based foundations and decentralization. But what’s more important versus today’s leaders is their economic incentives.

Crucially, the designs of the Metaverse are oriented around interconnection in a way that today’s dominant social/Web 2.0 platforms are not.